Printed trachea saved the child's life

We have further evidence to confirm the incredible possibilities of 3D printing technology. With her tiny child rescued with congenital
tracheal softening.

Kaib Gionfriddo few weeks after having first stopped breathing. Unfortunately, these attacks began to appear more frequently and eventually turned out
to be suffering from an acute case of flaccidity of the trachea ( tracheomalacja ).

Although doctors did not give him a chance of survival, but fortunately contacted two researchers from the University of Michigan. Professors Glenn
Green and Scott Hollister quickly obtained approval FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to create a tracheal implant samowchłanialnego
polycaprolactone.

Best of all, after a series of images using a CT scanner and a suitable treatment has involved working printer 3D, which allowed the creation of that
implant. At the beginning of the previous year has been successfully implanted and so far works great. Is also absorbed slowly, like a thread sutures.
This process is to take three years and allow the body to rebuild the boy's trachea.

So does that kid have to go in and get a new trachea every time he grows an inch taller? It's a temporary measure to be followed by many other
operations. Will the printed trachea stop his body from repairing itself or growing in that area? Just because they installed this doesn't mean it
is a practical long term solution for anything but the doctors bank accounts being low

I read that but I can't see them knowing that it will work right yet. In a few years there may be some info on whether it works. It is worth the
effort to try this out though but I wouldn't get my hopes too high, babys have a lot of growth potential so it may only work on babies.

Originally posted by rickymouse
So does that kid have to go in and get a new trachea every time he grows an inch taller? It's a temporary measure to be followed by many other
operations. Will the printed trachea stop his body from repairing itself or growing in that area? Just because they installed this doesn't mean it
is a practical long term solution for anything but the doctors bank accounts being low

Yeah your right, since the medical breakthrough doesn't solve all his problems I guess we should discard it.

Originally posted by rickymouse
So does that kid have to go in and get a new trachea every time he grows an inch taller? It's a temporary measure to be followed by many other
operations. Will the printed trachea stop his body from repairing itself or growing in that area? Just because they installed this doesn't mean it
is a practical long term solution for anything but the doctors bank accounts being low

Yeah your right, since the medical breakthrough doesn't solve all his problems I guess we should discard it.

My God....people like you want to make me puke.

No we don't discard it, we test it for many years. If someone would be interested in working with these doctors they should be informed that it is
experimental technology. They should not get their hopes up to high.

I have nothing against the progression of science. I do have a problem with the price of insurances rising so that nobody can afford health insurance
though. I have seen eighty year old people who were in poor shape being given treatment at great expense which gave them no more than six months of
life. The doctors told them that the treatment was not going to extend their life long but they didn't care because they had insurance that covered
it. That hundred thousand bucks would have been better spent on someone who had a lot more life to look forward to.

Soon employers will quit supplying health insurance because of costs or all the jobs will be exported. People cannot understand this. My wife's
health insurance cost to the employer is forty percent of her wages. Think about that for a minute. The insurance costs 13 grand and she still
contributes to a medical savings plan to cover some of what the insurance doesn't cover. If she gets sick, that grand she contributes will be
peanuts on the deductible. Maybe I am just too much of a realist.

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